48 Doctors to be Trained by the Government in Organ Transplant Retrieval

48 Doctors to be Trained by the Government in Organ Transplant Retrieval

The National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO) – the country’s apex organ donation agency is set to train 48 doctors to perform the organ transplant retrieval procedures. As the country is facing an acute shortage of specialist organ transplant surgeons who are capable of doing organ recovery from brain-dead patients, the NOTTO has found a way out.

The country’s apex organ donation agency was set to train 48 doctors under a training program under one roof. At Ramaiah Medical College in Bangalore, a two-day training program would be conducted between March 24 and March 25. The doctors across the country would be taught on the procedures of organ transplant retrieval. The government has selected these 48 doctors from several states where organ transplant procedure are near zero.

48 Doctors are chosen by the government to provide organ transplant and retrieval procedure, one two-day training program given by NOTTO.

Dr.Vimal Bhandhari, Director of National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation, said, “In states like Odisha, West Bengal, Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Chattisgarh, and Jharkhand, not a single organ transplant is happening. Our focus is to dwell the organ transplant experts in each district of the country. At present, patients have to travel to Delhi, Mumbai, and South India for organ transplants.”

He said that 24 doctors had been selected from government hospitals, while the another 24 doctors from the private set-up. At a time, six doctors will perform the procedure from one body for retrieval and transplant. International faculty, professors, and senior surgeons from top medical colleges from India and abroad will teach the doctors about organ recovery and transplant procedures.

Bhandari also said, “The retrieval of organs such as liver and kidney from a brain-dead patient is a bit easier for the surgeons, but the retrieval of a heart is still a tough task for the medically trained doctors. Many hospitals are still lacking specialist doctors capable of recovering the organ from brain-dead patients even when the relative of a deceased agrees for the donation.”

Last year in different parts of the country, at least nine hearts and two livers could not reach the needy patients in time, a recent report says.

A recent report from Mail Today has noted that at least nine hearts and about two liver hadn’t reached the needy patients in time in different parts of the country last year, even as lakhs of patients wait at top hospitals for life-saving transplants amid acute shortage od donors.

NOTTO experts have already pointed that there is a lack of a robust system to transplant organs to super-speciality hospitals in quick time. Now officials were framing a proposal to airlift the cadaver organs and would send a report to the Union health ministry.

About one or two senior specialist doctors from AIIMS and Safdarjung Hospital are capable of performing the procedures of organ retrieval and transplants such as liver, kidney, and heart. India is facing an acute shortage in the number of kidney donors. According to statistics, in the country, nearly two lakhs of patients is in need of new kidneys every year, but only 10000 patients get donors. In a year, around 1000 kidney transplants take place in the city and the adjoining areas.